Friday, March 10, 2017

Fukushima Daiichi Anniversary

On Fukushima's anniversary I reflect on why I watch the cams. I have been watching the cams daily since early June 2011.

First,
my blogging and published research on Fukushima provides an alternative
history of the events and their consequences for people in the future
who seek to understand this mega-catastrophe and find the official
account inadequate.

The alternative history that
I provide is caught up with and supports a more encompassing and
circulating global narrative regarding nuclearity (as articulated by
Hecht), hubris, and human extinction.

The second reason I blog on Fukushima and my webcam observations is more immediate. Fukushima is unstable.

The
plant structures could collapse because of liquefaction and/or another
earthquake. In fact, earthquake activity in the Fukushima region has
been very high recently:

Temblors
thought to be aftershocks of the Great East Japan Earthquake have
rocked the Tohoku and Kanto regions at more than twice the pre-3/11 rate
in the past year, according to the government’s Earthquake Research
Committee.

Figures released by the committee on March 9 showed
that 368 magnitude-4 or higher earthquakes occurred over the past year.
That is more than double the number that occurred in 10 years before the
2011 disaster, when an annual average of 136 was recorded.

“Seismic
activity still remains high and impacts wide areas,” said Naoshi
Hirata, head of the committee and professor of seismology at the
University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute.

I don't think anyone knows for sure what the
impact will be if the buildings collapse with their hundreds of tons of
hot nuclear fuel.

Mitsuhei Murata has argued publicly on more than one occasion that Fukushima remains “out of control,” posing a “global security issue.”

Unfortunately,
TEPCO and the LDP have worked together through their crisis and
post-crisis communications to trivialize the scale of the disaster and
the extent and severity of ongoing hazards. I have argued this claim at
my blog and in 2 of my published books:

Although the article states that few evacuees are actually expected to return, some may be forced by economic necessity to return to homes at great potential risk given the level of earthquake activity and the significant ongoing problems at the plant.

TEPCO and the LDP are risking health in order to promote the mythology of normalcy in the wake of the most significant nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl. And Fukushima continues to contaminate the enenvironment, particularly aquatic environments, with no end in sight.

Below please find my interview comments on Fukushima's anniversary in 2015 regarding the long-term consequences of Fukushima, including the "closing" of democracy within the society:

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Fukushima Anniversary Interview

1. How did the Fukushima disaster change Japan as we knew it?
Japanese public has become aware of the severe risks of nuclear power
as 230,000 Japanese people are still displaced and others are living in
zones contaminated by radionuclides

People in Japan and
elsewhere are living in a more contaminated world. Fukushima
significantly increased the world’s “background” level of radionuclides:
“During the passage of contaminated air masses from Fukushima, airborne
137Cs levels were globally enhanced by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude”
(Masson et al., 2011)[i]
while the “129I/127I ratio in Fukushima precipitation in March 2011
immediately after the Fukushima accident was more than 3 orders of
magnitude higher than the background level of this region page” (Xu et
al., 2013, 10851).[ii]

Japanese people are living in radiation-contaminated areas. Japan set
its evacuation standard at 20 millisieverts a year while the Soviet
Union set their evacuation standard at 5 millisieverts a year, although
some people remained within the evacuation zone.

Japan has become a more “closed society” with passage of State Secrets law:

The Mainichi (25, December). As I See It: State secrets law goes into effect, what now? http://mainichi.jp/english/english/perspectives/news/20141225p2a00m0na004000c.html[excerpted]
The more one reads the law, the more problems emerge. Twenty-three
categories of secrets (55 under the operation guidelines) are named, but
it's difficult to draw a clear distinction between secrets and
non-secrets. One is left with the impression that information the
administration finds inconvenient could be buried. The maximum penalty
for leaking secrets is 10 years' imprisonment. Until now under the
National Public Service Act, those charged with violating
confidentiality requirements faced a maximum penalty of one year in
prison, and those charged with leaking defense-related secrets were
subject to a maximum of five years in prison, so the penalty has
toughened dramatically under the state secrets law. Punishments for
those who try to acquire secrets are harsh, too. If authorities
determine that one has attempted, conspired to effect, induced or
incited information leakages, one can face up to five years in
prison.....

Ongoing contamination of ocean, fresh water, and atmosphere.
Newer research has documented that 75 percent of the radiation released
by the plant into the atmosphere occurred after March 15 because of
ongoing melting of hot fuel in the cracked spent fuel pools,[iii]
with subsequent episodes of increased atmospheric levels of emissions
in November and December of 2011, April of 2012, and September of 2012,
after which the researchers discontinued sampling.[iv]

In
north east Honshu, property owned by generations of families in
Fukushima prefecture was devalued or made uninhabitable by the Fukushima
nuclear disaster. As of December 21, 2014, six municipalities near the
Daiichi site remain closed because of radiation contamination and more
than 120,000 people are still living in temporary shelters (More
Radioactive Materials,
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20141221_16.html).

The
long term implications of the disaster are not fully understood because
information about the scope of damage and contamination are still
forthcoming.

Atmospheric contamination continues still with
steam emissions still visible as TEPCO injects over 300 tons of fresh
water daily to cool melted fuel. This feed and bleed system is
contaminating atmosphere but even more importantly it is contributing to
the problems of contaminated water at the site.

TEPCO has
acknowledged that ground water at the site is encountering highly
radioactive melted fuel and that some of that water makes it to the
ocean. TEPCO claims to lack knowledge of the specific location of the
melted cores – corium – but a diagram released by the Swiss Embassy
depicted at least one of the cores as located in the underground river.

The
“German Risk Study, Phase B” found that a core meltdown accident could
result in complete failures of all structural containment, causing
melted fuel to exit the reactor foundation within five days (cited in
Bayer, Tromm, & Al-Omari 1989). Moreover, the study found that even
in the event of an intact building foundation, passing groundwater would
be in direct contact with fuel, causing leaching of fission products.
Strontium leaches slower than cesium.

A follow-up German study, “Dispersion of Radionuclides and Radiation
Exposure after Leaching by Groundwater of a Solidified Core-Concrete
Melt,” predicted that strontium contamination levels would rise
exponentially years after a full melt-through located adjacent to a
river (Bayer, Tromm, & Al-Omari, 1989).

The German study’s
experimental conditions are roughly similar to Daiichi’s site
conditions, including groundwater emptying into an adjacent river,
whereas Daiichi is physically situated above an underground river
emptying into the sea. The study predicted concentrations of
Strontium-90 in river water would spike relatively suddenly, but
maintain extraordinarily high levels of contamination for years: “The
highest radionuclide concentration of approx. 1010 Bq/m3 is reached by
Sr-90 after some 5000 days.”

It is noteworthy that TEPCO
reported an exponential increase in the Strontium-90 level in ground
water beginning in July 2013, with levels continuing to rise steadily
through early 2015. In July 2013 water from the well between the ocean
and unit 1 measuring a record 5 million Becquerels per liter of
radioactive Strontium-90 alone (“Record Strontium-90 Level,” 2014). By
February of 2015 TEPCO was reporting even higher levels of Strontium-90
in the same location, with the highest sample measured at 590,000,000
Bq/m3 of Strontium-90 (Fukushima Diary 590,000,000 Bq/m3 of Strontium-90 measured from groundwater of Reactor 2 seaside).

The accident at Daiichi may fit the German melt-through scenario. An
exponential increase in the level of Strontium-90 contamination would
invalidate models of projected ocean contamination relying on samples
collected in 2011.

3.
What is the current situation in the Fukushima prefecture? Some reports
suggest that the radiation levels there are still high.

Atmospheric, ocean and ground water contamination are ongoing. The
Japanese government admits that only 18% of decontamination work planned
has been achieved in Itate Japan (Iwata, 2015, March 10 p. A14 in
Tainted Fukushima Soil a Lingering Burden WSJ)

Ocean
contamination has not ended and there is no end in sight. Strontium is
among the long term risks because it is a very significant environmental
hazard and bioaccumulates in bones and in the brain.

Rising rates of thyroid cancer already found in Fukushima
children.By February of 2014, there were 75 confirmed or suspected
thyroid cancer cases among 270,000 Fukushima Prefecture individuals
screened, who were 18 or under at the time of the disaster (Nose &
Oiwa, 2014). The screening committee claimed the Fukushima disaster was
an unlikely cause (“Eight More,” 2014). However, the observed frequency
of thyroid cancer and nodules exceeds established incident rates. For
example, the prevalence of thyroid nodules in children typically ranges
from 0.2-5.0 percent (Gerber & Meyers, 2013), while in Fukushima, 42
percent of 133,000 children were found to have thyroid nodules and
cysts (Haworth, 2013). A study measuring thyroid exposure to Iodine-131
conducted between April 12, 2011 and April 16, 2011 and published in
Research Reports found “extensive measurements of the exposure to I-131
revealing I-131 activity in the thyroid of 46 out of the 62 residents
and evacuees measured” (Tokonammi, Hosoda, Akiba, Sorimachi,
Kashiwakura, & Balonov, 2012).

4. Are Fukushima-like disasters still possible in Japan? And what should be done it avoid it?

Japan’s former Prime Minister, Naoto Kan (2013), described the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear disaster as “the most severe accident in the history of
mankind.” Although precipitated by natural events, the reactor
explosions and subsequent crisis management were human engineered
fiascos. This summary conclusion was reached by the National Japanese
Diet, who declared in their 2012 official report, “The Fukushima Nuclear
Accident Independent Investigation Commission” that human error was,
above all else, responsible for the disaster. The report’s chairman,
Kiyoshi Kurokawa, introduces findings with these words: “Our report
catalogues a multitude of errors and wilful negligence that left the
Fukushima plant unprepared for the events of March 2011. And it examines
serious deficiencies in the response to the accident by TEPCO,
regulators and the government.”

In some ways, nothing has
happened to prevent future nuclear accidents. The LDP remains wedded to
nuclear power and is pusing for reactor re-starts and for opening the
Rokkasho nuclear reprocessing facility, which is located on a fault that
may be active.[v]

The
conclusion that nuclear power poses catrastrophic risks was Gorbachev
noted in his Memoirs that prior to the Chernobyl disaster there had been
151 significant radiation leaks at nuclear power plants around the
world.[vi] He warned that one or two more accidents would produce contamination far worse than after a nuclear war.[vii]
Russia and parts of Europe remain contaminated from that disaster, with
parts of the Bryansk Region of Russia with median radiation levels of
Cesium-137 two orders of magnitude higher than current levels of
deposition from nuclear weapons fallout.[viii]
Chernobyl, Gorbachev wrote, “was a bell calling mankind to understand
what kind of age we live in. It made people recognize the danger of
careless or even criminal negligent attitudes toward the environment.”[ix]

Nuclear Power is Not Safe and is Truly the Path Toward Our Extinction.

Eugenics in an age of Genotoxic insanity. Thanks You really care about freedom and individual rights. This is what trump and your republican buddies are doing to american in the very dark age.Force employees to take DNA tests for bosses?

We've got a new law to make that happen, beam House Republicans

Give us your genes or pay 50% more for company healthcare

House bill HR 1313, dubbed the Preserving Employee Wellness Programs Act, was introduced by Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and would allow employers to request genetic data from workers – and their family members – if they want their health insurance covered. It wouldn't be mandatory, but those who refuse could see their health costs rise by up to 50 per cent.

Sorry Majia slip of the keyboard. Not you. Great article by Chris Hedges about the new entrenched oligarchy, that ruthlessly gained power. The other side of the coin. Their partisans ruthlessly spread out across the internet. Like pentecostal preachers yelling Vote trump or else, the y posed on all aspects of the internet. Threateningly and menacingly.

The new article by Chris Hedges captures the spirit of American now Failure : Culturally, Socially, Financially, Economically, Politically. Similar to what has happened in the Ukraine and is happening in Japan. God help us if anything like the Fukushima disaster or a meltdown occurs in america. Aiding the nuclear industry in so many ways may accelerate that scenario. from Hedges The Dance of Death"The ruling corporate elites no longer seek to build. They seek to destroy. They are agents of death. They crave the unimpeded power to cannibalize the country and pollute and degrade the ecosystem to feed an insatiable lust for wealth, power and hedonism. Wars and military "virtues" are celebrated. "Full Story athttps://www.opednews.com/populum/pagem.php?f=The-Dance-of-Death-by-Chris-Hedges-Abyss_Capitalism_Death_Fascism-170313-402.html

About Me

I am a Professor at a large public university. I study political economy and biopolitics (the politics of life). My interests are diverse but are broadly concerned with economic, social and environmental justice. I have published 5 books: Crisis Communication, Liberal Democracy and Ecological Sustainability: The Threat of Financial and Energy Complexes in the Twenty-First Century (2016); Fukusima and the Privatization of Risk (2013); Constructing Autism (2005); Governmentality, Biopower and Everyday Life (2008/2011); Governing Childhood (2010).
I also participated in an edited collection on Fukushima: Fukushima: Dispossession or Denuclearization (2014).